Toys which function as bibs and bibs which function as toys are known in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,980 is an example of the former, a toy device with pull-out bib, which issued to Woon S. Tai et al. on Sep. 10, 1991. Tai et al. '980 discloses a hollow animal-shaped container with an integrated carrying handle in which the hollow container stores a roll-up bib until the bib is ready to be used. Examples of combination toddler bib and doll devices include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,829,601 and 5,201,073, both of which issued to M. Spanier on May 16, 1989 and Apr. 13, 1993, respectively. Spanier '601 discloses a toddler bib which includes a three-dimensional doll fashioned by applying a three-dimensional face to the body of the bib and affixing doll arms and legs to the bib so that the child may be amused by a three-dimensional doll while eating. Spanier '073 discloses the addition of a storage pocket and removable holder to the rear of the combination toddler bib and doll device described in Spanier '601 so that additional children's items may be stored. U.S. Pat. No. 4,068, 313, issued to D. Goldman on Jan. 17, 1978, discloses a child's bib with an article of use, such as a toy, tethered to the bib to prevent the loss or contamination of the attached article while the bib is being worn.
Each of the above inventions, either separately or in combination, acknowledges a need to make the feeding experience as pleasant as possible for both child and adult, while minimizing the mess created by young children during feeding. These devices seek to satisfy this need by combining the protective bib with a toy device--thereby associating a positive amusement experience (symbolized by the toy device) with an often negative feeding experience (symbolized by the bib).
An unrelated need also acknowledged by the prior art is that the amount of children's clothing, toys and related paraphernalia that supervising adults can carry is necessarily limited. As a result, useful and essential children's articles, like toys and bibs, that serve multiple functions are in demand because they optimize the use of an adult's fixed carrying capacity.
Prior art devices, however, do not disclose or suggest attaching a toy figure to the nonworking side of a bib body nor do such prior devices anticipate a bib being folded up to constitute a toy while also fully containing the messy working side of the bib body after feeding. As a result, the prior art devices do not achieve either of the aforementioned long-felt needs. In fact, the prior art teaches away from the current novel invention by disclosing and encouraging playing with toy devices simultaneously with feeding. This necessarily develops a desire in a child to play with the food, rather than to eat the food dutifully and thus creates more, not less, soiling of the child's surroundings, including the bib itself. This renders the entire experience less positive for both the adult--who must clean up the mess created--and the child--whose toy becomes soiled and which toy must be cleaned before further play is possible. Moreover, since the prior art teaches and encourages play with the toy during eating, the toy will inevitably be soiled during feeding. This aggravates, rather than alleviates, the storage problem since additional clean toys must be carried to amuse the child after feeding and additional capacity is needed to segregate the now-soiled combination bib and toy device from other clean items to prevent secondary contamination.
Until now, no combination bib and toy device has been able to invoke a positive feeding experience without also soiling the attached toy device. The prior art does not teach or suggest a means, desire or objective of preventing the toy from being soiled during feeding. The present invention assures that the toy remains clean during feeding by affixing it to the nonworking side of the bib body. In addition, no previous combination bib and toy device fully alleviates the storage problem inherent with soiled bibs or soiled toys. The present invention is the first device to incorporate a folding design that enables the soiled working side of the bib to be completely enclosed within a still-clean toy when the bib is reconfigured into an amusing toy in a matter of seconds by means of a few simple folds.